Female bar staff resist dress code

At least 10,000 female bar attendants crowded into a huge park in India's financial capital, Mumbai, yesterday to protest against new government rules that impose dress rules and a code of conduct in nightclubs.

"Down with rules, down with rules, let us also live," they shouted, as bar owners criticised the government's "stepmotherly treatment" of their industry.

Mumbai has about 50,000 women working in bars, who entertain clients by serving liquor and dancing to the latest Bollywood film tunes.

The new rules ban them from revealing bare skin and call for a 3ft (one metre) high wall around dancefloors to stop customers getting too close.

The authorities have cracked down on bars in response to complaints of indecency. Police raids this year forced some to close down.